Download the lecture: Audio : Video
James Timberlake
Partner, KieranTimberlake, Philadelphia
KieranTimberlake: Inquiry
The American architecture firm KieranTimberlake is committed to the creation of high performance buildings through the seamless integration of design with research. They are dedicated to interrogating and advancing building design practices through material, system, process, and environment driven questions. Over the course of multiple projects, they have employed a range of approaches to off-site fabrication, from program-volume subdivision, to the articulation of entirely new systems of assembly. In his lecture, James Timberlake will discuss the construction methodologies the firm has devised to confront current productivity and environmental problems that undermine the building industry. An investigation of building information modeling (BIM), the supply chain and the creation of integrated component assemblies are posed as part of the solution, as well as trans-industry collaboration, cultivation of a deep environmental ethic, and assuming responsibility for the total lifecycle of a building.
James Timberlake is a partner at KieranTimberlake, an American architecture firm internationally recognized for its beautifully crafted, thoughtfully made buildings that are holistically integrated to site, program and people. KieranTimberlake is noted for its fusion of research with architecture, receiving over one hundred design citations including the 2008 Architecture Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects, and the 2010 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture from the Smithsonian Institution.
Established in Philadelphia in 1984, KieranTimberlake has produced a diverse body of work for clients drawn to its environmentally ethical and innovative design. Their client list includes the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC; Yale University in New Haven, CT; Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation in New Orleans, LA; and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY. They are currently engaged in projects across the United States in California, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington, DC, and internationally in Malaysia and Singapore. In 2010 the firm won a high profile competition to design the United States Embassy in London.
James and his partner, Stephen Kieran, received the first Benjamin Latrobe Fellowship for architectural design research from the AIA College of Fellows in 2001. Timberlake has co-authored several books, including Manual, The Architecture of KieranTimberlake, refabricating Architecture, and Loblolly House: Elements of a New Architecture. KieranTimberlake’s latest book, Cellophane House™ was released as an eBook in early 2011, and a new monograph is due out in September 2011. In addition to his architectural practice he teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Design.
Exhibition:
To coincide with the lecture, an exhibition of selected projects by KieranTimberlake will be on display in the Wunderlich Gallery, 23-31 August.
Image at top: KieranTimberlake Cellophane House, New York, 2008.
JAMES TIMBERLAKE